Mark Corbett SJ lesson - Parwood - 23-10-13

2days off to chill in the field after Larkhill brings us to today.  25min hack to Parwood to warmup and then into a lesson with 3 others all happy jumping same height.  Warmed up over the same 2 stride double we did last week.  Start with just x pole, then x pole to vertical then x pole to 1m oxer.  Really concentrating on keeping him straight and letting him work it out for himself.

Moved onto a really twisty course that he had deliberately designed with lots of turnbacks.  Double then round to little oxer, left turnback to wavy planks, round to the right to a big oxer, round to the right to a vertical then left turnback to scary psychadelic filler, round to the right to the sheep, keep going round to right and over zebra planks then completely double back on yourself to upright then left dogleg to wavy planks.  He just took the back rail on the back of the oxer in the first double for no good reason but otherwise I was really pleased with how he jumped the entire course and how well I managed to keep the power round the corners and meet the fences in the right places.

Different course to finish - double to little oxer then double back 180degrees to a big oxer then right to the big oxer and then right to the wavy planks and right dogleg to upright.  Cleared them all and got a super jump over the 2 big oxers.

Mark would like to see him snapping up more in front and learning to go from a deeper spot which is interesting as we've been pandering to him up till now and appreciating that he likes to go on a long, forwards stride and when I get him in deeper it's normally with not enough power and then he just tries to levitate over the jump.  Now I've got more power when he gets in deeper he's taking the fence down because he doesn't sit back on his hocks and snap up in front.  Mark would work on shorter striding grids (today's 2 stride had 10 strides in it so not exactly long anyway) and v-poles to try and get him to get to a deeper spot and snap up.  Something we can work on at home.  Interesting to now be thinking about improving his technique rather than just getting round.  Perhaps we're making progress!